The Solitary Rambler

I spend a day exploring the beautiful Lynton and Lynmouth, where Exmoor meets the sea. This is one of my favourite places in Exmoor National Park so, despite the rather drizzly weather for a large part of the day, it’s a joy for me to be visiting here again. I explore the town of Lynton followed by a walk to the spectacular Valley of Rocks. The best part of the day, however, is when I drop down into the wonderful Lynmouth.....

After I had completed my day of filming on the 28th August 2017 in the Quantock Hills I drove on to Lynton, where I had booked two nights accommodation in a lovely B&B called Longmead House. I had planned this so that I could shoot a film of “The Solitary Rambler” in the Quantocks en route to Lynton, to then make a couple of films in Exmoor over the following two days. Staying in Lynton meant that I could easily make one of my Exmoor films in Lynton and Lynmouth and the nearby Valley of Rocks.

The following morning, Tuesday 29th August, I woke up to see drizzle. I knew that the forecast was for a grey day, but not rain, so I was surprised and disappointed. However, I had to make my film one way or another, so from my B&B I walked into Lynton to begin shooting. It proved to be a difficult experience because of the rain as I was constantly wiping the camera lens, but on the positive side I was still capturing some good shots around the town. It took considerably longer to shoot around Lynton due to the wet weather, so I was later starting the actual walk than I had hoped.

I later began to walk along the wonderful path to the Valley of Rocks. Although still generally grey the rain was becoming less persistant, so filming was getting easier as the day went on. I captured some great shots around the Valley of Rocks including some of the local wild goats. I walked back to Lynton along the path running parallel to the lane. From here I took the path to Lynmouth filming a few scenes of the Cliff Railway as the path crossed it on the way down. The weather was much improved when I reached Lynmouth and it was a joy spending the last couple of hours filming all around here. I planned to take the Cliff Railway back up to Lynton, but the queues were astronomical, so I decided to climb the steep path back up again. However, I could some brilliant shots of the Cliff Railway and the last few shots of the day were taken back in Lynton at the top of the Cliff Railway.

By the time I was about to begin post-production I had run rather dry with ideas for music. I do remember one visit to Lynton and Lynmouth back in the early 1990s having part of a tune in my head, so I thought I could try to develop this in my film, which I just ended up titling “Lynton and Lynmouth”. However, I didn’t think it was really going to work in the video in the end, so I recorded just a few short sections of it to use in some of the Lynmouth scenes. For the main soundtrack I eventually recorded a theme, which I had been messing around with for a couple of years or so. This particular piece of music was not composed with any specific location in mind; originally I was going to use it in "Delight in Downham" back in 2015, but I felt in the end it was not a suitable theme for that particular film. Then in 2016 I decided I could perhaps use it for the soundtrack for “Hillsides of Hayfield”, but again I eventually decided it wasn’t right for that video. However, towards the end of October 2017 I felt it might work for “Lynton and Lynmouth”, so as I had no other ideas for music I chose to record it for that film
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